What is NIRF?
Government of India, took up the initiative to launch a Nationwide Ranking Framework to rank the educational institutions in India. The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) was launched by Ministry of Human Resource Development on 29th September 2015. Three annual exercises of All India Rankings has been done from 2016 to 2018. The major role is played by NBA under the umbrella of MHRD in ranking of the institutions.
The methodology draws from the overall recommendations and broad understanding by a Core Committee set up by MHRD to identify the broad parameters for ranking institutions of Higher Education. The parameters covered are:
1. Teaching, Learning and Resources
2. Research and Professional Practices
3. Graduation Outcomes
4. Outreach and Inclusivity and
5. Perception
NIRF Score Estimator (NISE)
Colleges want to get a preview of how their data inputs to NIRF will reflect in the final score. The challenge is that NIRF does not disclose the formulas, except that it is relative evaluation and not absolute scoring. This poses a challenge that can be solved using proper statistical methods. The output is to provide a Heuristic Model from which, colleges can estimate their NIRF Score. Best yet, they can play with the data and acquire valuable feedback into how they can make policy decisions, that will align to improve their future NIRF Scores.
